Field set for June election to fill Healdsburg council seat

Less than five months after the general election, the campaign signs are sprouting once again in Healdsburg in the run-up to a June contest to fill a single City Council seat.

Four people are running in a special election to fill the remaining 18 months of the position vacated by Councilman Eric Ziedrich, who resigned in November following the defeat of a housing measure that he backed.

The council couldn’t agree on a replacement to fill his remaining term, which runs through December 2018.

In the meantime, members decided to have former City Councilman Gary Plass fill the spot until a special election could be conducted at the earliest date, June 6. The June election comes as the need to create more affordable housing remains a top issue in Healdsburg, along with concern that tourism is exacerbating the housing problem and eroding small-town character.

A group of activists recently began calling for a moratorium on new hotels and wine tasting rooms until the city conducts a study on the impacts of tourism and creates measures to balance the industry with the needs of residents. Candidates in the June election said they are not in favor of a moratorium, although they agree housing needs are a top priority.

The four candidates are:

Plass, 63, a retired Healdsburg police sergeant and real estate agent who narrowly lost his bid in November to be re-elected to a third, four-year term.

Leah Gold, 61, an educational consultant and former mayor who served on the City Council from 2001 through 2004.

Rosie Fabian, 53, a care provider who ran for City Council once before in 2010, and now advocates for the homeless.

Erica Whisney, 34, a teacher and certified behavioral analyst making her first bid for public office.

The special election is estimated to cost $33,000, something that gave some council members pause when they voted in January to schedule it. Mayor Shaun McCaffery said a special election was “not our first choice” but was the least political option because it involved “taking it to the people.”

The special election follows a major reshuffling of the City Council after veteran council members either chose not to seek re-election, resigned or failed to win re-election.

Two newcomers with no previous political experience - David Hagele and Joe Naujokas - won in November. They joined a council consisting of two others with relatively brief tenure: McCaffery, who was just re-elected to a second, four-year term, and Councilwoman Brigitte Mansell, who has been on the council two years. The City Council has not weighed in on the request for a hotel and tasting room moratorium.

Gold said “I don’t know that a moratorium is necessary,” although she said “we should be looking at the impacts of hotels, especially on employment and housing for their workers.” She noted that many hotel workers can’t afford to live in Healdsburg.

After Ziedrich resigned, Gold’s backers collected 350 signatures urging the City Council to appoint her to the remainder of his term. She said her supporters “think of me as a progressive voice - and someone who won’t be as much ‘business as usual’ - to try and solve some problems in a new way.”

Plass, a registered Republican who also is committed to greenhouse gas reduction goals and increasing the city’s renewable energy portfolio, doesn’t shy away from describing himself as “progressive.”

“People appreciate the fact I’m fiscally conservative and also worry about the environment and our housing needs,” he said.

Plass said a moratorium on new hotels “doesn’t make a lot of sense” and may not be legally justified.

“Hotels are more of a zoning issue and a design review issue,” he said. “Let’s have those conversations, not just go off the deep end and try to stop everything.”

Whisney also agreed that a moratorium is not a good idea.

“It seems to me a moratorium on any specific type of business is not necessarily equitable,” she said.

Whisney, who served on the city’s housing committee last year, said a recent hotel approved along Dry Creek Road also will include approximately 36 affordable housing units.

“We were able through negotiation to get more affordable housing,” she said.

Fabian said a moratorium would be extreme. She came in last among a field of six candidates when she ran for City Council seven years ago but said she has become better known in the community advocating for the homeless, who numbered around 90 individuals in Healdsburg, according to the 2016 count. She would like to see a homeless shelter in Healdsburg, perhaps using some old modular buildings.

“In a town with this much wealth, there’s no excuse we can’t have a homeless shelter somewhere, where people can go and be safe on a rainy night,” Fabian said.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 707-521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com. ?On Twitter@clarkmas